Dead Forest
by Lordriochi
Summary: It is the 15th century and the Ottoman Empire is expanding outwards. In the campaign in Romania, the nation and his army see the horrific sight crafted by the Wallachian Prince. One shot


Dead Forest

AN: For the purpose of this story, Turkey/Ottoman Empire will be referred as Sadiq Adnan, as it is simpler than giving him a different name to suit this time period.

15th century

Wallachia, Romania

Sadiq grumbled loudly as he readjusted his dirty porcelain mask. He forcibly opened his darkened eyelids, having difficulty in staying alert after so many restless nights on this campaign. His steed, a black maned stallion had a habit of being shaky. His old, magnificent horse had been killed fifty days before in a midnight ambush by those Romanians. What cowards they were! Attacking in the night like carrion while the Ottoman soldiers had set up camp… it disgusted Sadiq. The Empire's soldiers were weary of the war in Romania. For those men who were not injured or slain from the Romanian cowardly tactics, many were ill either from being in this foreign land or from being infected from enemy soldiers.

The Ottoman Empire resigned in silence as several of the men around him were still violently coughing. The diseased soldiers, whether they be on horseback or on foot were coughing both blood and phlegm. Since the Ottoman armies had entered this land, the overwhelming size of the troops had dwindled only slightly. It may have been of little concern to any other petty empire, but to Adnan, this was a major issue that had to be tended to. Out of all the campaigns he has fought in, this war was very tedious compared to his conquests around the Mediterranean Sea. If the conflict continued any further, it would poison his men's already weakened morale. This tiresome conflict -the Turkish man had remembered- started due to the insult of the leader of this region, Wallachia. The ruler was a prince named Vlad Dracul.

Before this campaign began, messengers from his Sultan, Mehmed the Second, had came to Romania. They had come to Wallachia with Mehmed's demands for tribute. It was the usual, the Empire wanted soldiers, gold and supplies for construction. The messengers were sent back, with their turbans nailed to their heads. With their bodies, there was a note. The prince had written that the heralds had disrespected him by not taking off their turbans in his presence. This was an outrage to the Sultan and him! The prince had dared to mock Islam! No Muslim would ever take off his turban! When Dracula and his horde invaded Ottoman territory and retreated back to their land, Sadiq volunteered to join his Sultan in utterly crushing Romania. The issues in Greece, Italy and in Asia were to be settled later. The insolence of the Wallachian prince had to be dealt with utmost force.

However, unlike previous opponents, the Romanians were very stubborn and were quite flighty. For the past month, they were setting up ambush after ambush upon his army. By the time the Ottomans were assembled for combat, the Romanians would have disappeared into the protection of the many thick forests in this wretched land, where neither arrows nor horsemen would be able to harm the cowards. Sadiq swore that he would burn down these forests, after the land of Romania would become his vassal.

Sadiq inhaled the cool air and covered his nose instantly. His own horse buckled up, neighing in terror. The smell… it was familiar. It was the smell of the dead. Sadiq quelled his horse's erratic buckling, tugging at the reins with all of his strength. The stinking, foul scent drifted into his nostrils again, forcing the Ottoman Empire to cover his nose with the red scarf wrapped around his short neck. Sadiq turned his head to observe if his soldiers noticed the disgusting, morbid smell in the air. The soldiers around the Empire stopped too, some even regurgitated what they had eaten earlier in the early morning. Slowly, all the soldiers stopped in their uniform march, some vomiting and some frozen in shock in what they saw. Perplexed, Sadiq turned around to see what the spectacle his soldiers had spotted.

When he had spotted it, the empire's lower jaw dropped down. In his view, there was a mostly flat ground, but from the ground was a large forest of high trees. Instead of leaves, Sadiq saw humans growing on…no, impaled on the trees! It was at that moment, Sadiq realized that the forest that he seeing was made up of impaled bodies. The dead bodies atop the wooden pikes were Ottoman soldiers, Romanian peasants; men, women and… children? Many of the corpses had expressions of pain and fear frozen on their faces, dwindling Sadiq's courage greatly. The cadavers were in different states of decay. A small percentage was skeletal bodies and the rest were still "fresh", being recently impaled upon the numerous pikes surrounding the area in front of the army.

Never had he ever seen such a nightmarish scene in his long life, not even in his darkest dream! It was at this horrifying moment, some of the soldiers began to weep at the sight, some were still vomiting and the rest were in shock. Sadiq and Mehmed II were in shock, unable to speak. For what was a minute felt like an hour.

"We must retreat, we cannot go any further." said Mehmed II. His voice was quivering in shock, uncharacteristic of his determined nature since the Ottoman Empire has known him. The officers among the Ottoman army relayed the Sultan's order to turn around to march back to Istanbul. With one final look to the "forest", Sadiq rode up closer to his ruler.

"We came to this land to fight an uncultured barbarian and we….meet a demon instead." said Sadiq.

Even after Vlad Dracula would be slain, the Ottoman Empire would continue to have recurring nightmares of seeing the Wallachian prince's handiwork.

Historical Notes:

Born in 1431, died in 1476. Vlad Dracul III or Vlad Tepes was a prince controlling the region of Wallachia in Romania. With a propensity to impale his enemies, Vlad was feared by the Ottoman Empire, as well his own people. He was infamous for his acts of cruelty in the history of his country, including the "Forest of the Impaled", a massive area where he had impaled thousands of people. Despite the bloodthirsty aspects of his nature, Vlad Tepes is considered a Romanian national hero, for his bravery in fighting the Ottoman Turks. It is unknown where his final resting place is and how he was killed. "Tepes" was a title given to him after his death and it means Impaler. The Forest of the Impaled was made up of thousands of Vlad's victims impaled on long wooden stakes. The very sight of this "forest" forced the Ottomans to turn back due to Vlad's effective psychological warfare and low morale among the Turks, but they would return and conquer Wallachia and all of Romania after Dracul's mysterious death.


End file.
